Mike Rizzo to Junkies: Nationals are 'ecstatic' about No. 1 prospect James Wood, but indicates call-up not imminent

James Wood, the Washington Nationals' top prospect and No. 5 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, has been tearing up the Triple-A level. He has 11 doubles and seven home runs to go along with 25 RBI while batting .357 with an 1.041 OPS through his first 36 games at Rochester.

When The Sports Junkies playfully ‘reminded’ Mike Rizzo of those stats – and his 13 hits (including five homers) and 14 RBI in his last seven games – just to make sure the fans were aware, the Nationals GM interjected, “Oh, the fans know, believe me,” he said during his weekly appearance on Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

Rizzo said he "couldn't be more excited about" Wood, but seemed to indicate there was no imminent call-up coming for the 21-year-old outfielder.

"He's a high school draft [pick] with 160 or so at-bats at the Triple-A level so he's doing his thing and it's just a matter of time before he cracks the big leagues, and when he gets to the big leagues I want him to stay there forever and never look back," Rizzo told the Junkies. "And that's what we're working on right now is the consistency and making sure that he's fully prepared to come up to the big leagues and contribute and dominant and not have any struggles to force us to send him back.

"We're extremely excited with where he is, along with a bunch of other players in our system, but he's the main focus and the closest to the big leagues and the guy that's gonna be an impactful player for us and we're ecstatic with where he's at.

"He's doing his part and we have a plan for him. And he's a guy that we feel that is gonna be a big contributor to our championship club."

When asked about what else the club wanted to see from Wood, Rizzo mentioned how Nats manager Davey Martinez had recently said he wanted to see him have more at-bats against left-handed pitching.

The GM said the six-foot-seven outfielder has not had many at-bats above Single-A and for a player drafted out of high school who just turned 21, "he's way ahead of schedule, he's doing his thing and we hope that we have an emerging star on the horizon."

So, it might be a matter of time, but that time might just go a bit slower for some Nationals fans than they would like.